How has Senator Heidi Heitkamp managed to be the only Democrat elected on North Dakota’s statewide ballot since 2008? She invests a lot of time and energy posturing herself as a moderate who frequently dissents against the liberal orthodoxy of her fellow Democrats. A the policy area where she most often does this is energy,…

I’ve always thought that, when a politician casts a controversial vote, an explanation before that vote is cast is worth a lot more than a justification after the fact. In this op/ed column Senator Heidi Heitkamp does a lot of justifying of her recent vote against overturning an Obama era emissions rule which the state’s…

This week, the industry was dealt a serious blow when the Senate failed to repeal the BLM Waste Prevention rule. This was not without a lack of effort on behalf of Senator Hoeven and Congressman Cramer who showed great leadership in the effort and showed their support for the more than 72,000 people whose jobs…

Earlier today I wrote about Senator Heidi Heitkamp indicating that she’d vote against a Congressional repeal for a BLM rule regulating methane emissions. These would be emissions that a) the EPA already regulates and b) the BLM has no authority to regulate. Anyway, Heitkamp did vote against repeal. In fact, she was the deciding vote.…

UPDATE: The final Senate vote on this was 51-49. It failed. Had Heitkamp voted the other way the tie would have been settled in favor of passing the CRA with Vice President Pence’s vote. On his way out the door earlier this year former President Barack Obama committed an act of regulatory vandalism. He instituted a…